Encounter 2.3.1: The Ringmaster: The Secret Workshop

The party, after having interrogated a captured poacher, has discovered the whereabouts to the entrance leading to the below-ground workshop where the poaching ring prepares its prizes for shipment.

The party has captured and interrogated at least one poacher, and has obtained from that person information about an underground area in the village of Spirit Lake. There, the senior members of the poaching ring are presumed to gather up the sprites and pixies returned by the recruited "hunters", and package them up for shipping out.

If the interrogated poacher is one of the lieutenants, he will know exactly where the secret entrance is. if it is one of the low-level poachers, the information may be a bit more vague. But either way, the party should feel it is near to cracking this case.

The Gamemaster may need to be creative here. It is possible that the party will decide to "deliver" the goods that the poachers had already collected in order to find out who picks them up. If they do this, they will place the goods as told to by the poacher, the goods will "disappear", and the party will look for where they could have disappeared to and will find the secret entrance. If the party interrogated a Lieutenant, they will know about the secret entrance immediately. If they are not careful in their actions, they will alert the other lieutenant, who happens to work in Gimna's Palace, that something is amiss.

Gimna's Palace Basement

You make your way back to town, and around to the back of the casino, Gimna's Palace. There, you find a set of slanted bulkehead doors - two doors that close together in the center, but secured with a chain and a padlock. (The key was in Georgi's coin pouch.)

Let the party get the doors open.

The doors now open, you proceed carefully down the steep stone steps into a basement area beneath the casino. It is pitch black at the foot of the stairs.

Let the party resolve any light issues.

You find yourself in an unlit room that is approximately 20' by 30', To your immediate left there are piles of burlap sacks - some appear to be flour, oats, and barley. On the near wall to your right, two sets of wooden shelves hold empty tankards, and smaller burlap sacks of salt and sugar.Along the wall opposite the stairs, a number of kegs are standing. The one or two nearest you appear to be breached and empty; others are full. The walls are made from vertical wooden planks.

Let the party search the room to find the secret door behind the kegs.

You find the tiny latch that releases the catch on the door that blended into the plank wall so well. Swinging it away from you, you find a tiny room - no more than 5' by 10' in dimensions - again with walls of vertical planks. There are two empty cages in the far corner of the room.

Anybody that's entitled to passive perception checks to find hidden traps, doors, etc. get a DC15 chance to find the second secret door. Otherwise, the party must state they're looking for it.

The Secret Passage

You find yet another secret door, this one opens into a stone and dirt-walled tunnel passage, no more than 5' wide. After about 20' or so, it seems to turn slightly to the right; you cannot see beyond this turn.

Let the party decide to proceed; check single file marching order. Have the party perform a Stealth check at this point. They can use the Stealth roll of their "best" character, but there is -2 penalty for each person wearing "noisy" armor. As they start down the passage, their DC is 14.

You follow the passage about 25 feet until it turns slightly to the right. (If somebody has appropriate vision...) You can see that it appears to end in a left and right branching tee just ten feet farther on. But there appears to be light emanting from the right side - you can just make out flickering of some light source on the far wall.

Once they enter the east/west passage, they must check again, this time at a DC16 - unless they decide to quick-rush from the "T".

The Underground Storeroom

If the party is stealthy enough, they may surprise Georgi and Waryn, both sitting at a table going over a ledger book by the light of a lantern on the table. If they make any noise, though, Georgi will be hiding against the east wall with a readied attack to slash at the first person into the room.

In the southeast corner of the room, you can see a stack of the small cages you've come to recognize - all with their doors swung open. The table where the two poachers were working holds a large ledger book, and a quick perusal makes it obvious that this was the main ledger of the poaching operation. The last entries have today's date on them - apparently a number of "wings" and "intacts" were sold to somebody for a decent sum of coin. There is no evidence of the coin, though. A second table against the east wall is empty. There is a door in the north wall near the eastern edge of the room, and there is lamplight visible through the bottom of the door.

Investigating the second door will reveal the trapdoor up to Amaric's back room. There is no ladder here, though. Amaric was in this room - already on his way to stash the proceeds of the night's sale - when the party burst in below. Assuming they did not check this room during the fight, Amaric had time to use his rope of climbing to get upstairs, retrieve the rope, close the trapdoor, and throw sacks over it. He then ran across to the livery stable, took a horse, and booked out of town to catch the merchant.

The Secret of the Livery Stable

The passage to the left seems to go on for some distance straight ahead. Finally, after about 70', it simply ends. But there's a crude ladder leading up to a wooden trapdoor. There is also a considerable amount of loose straw strewn about on the ground beneath the hole.

If the party investigates this, they wil discover that the trap door leads to the wagon storage portion of the livery stable. If they had been in the stable before, they may have realized that it was where the suspect merchant's wagon had been stored. That wagon is no longer here. There is a heavy hay bale sitting right next to the trapdoor, as if it was there to be used to hide the door.

Georji Amaricson (Poacher Lieutenant, Elite) - NPC 3

UNIQUECNMEDIUMHUMANOIDHUMAN

The Poacher Lieutenant is a little more "criminal" than most of the gang -- this is somebody that made a conscious decision to make a living out of illegally hunting - and to recruit others into the profession as well. Georji is more than just a lieutenant, though. As the son of the ringleader, Amaric Duncanson, Georgi is not just working for the ring - he expects to run it himself one day. Georji is responsible for most of the recruiting into the ring; he uses his position as the Chief Bartender in Gimna'a Palace to have the opportunity to interact with potential members. He also has used this position to arrange the logistics of the poaching operation, turning the Keg Cellar of the casino into the dropoff-point for the poachers.
Perception	+10
Languages	Common
Skills	Athletics+11, Crafting+7, Deception+7, Intimidation+7, Stealth+10, Survival+11
STR +4 , DEX +1 , CON +3 , INT +1 , WIS +2 , CHA +0
Items	Dagger, Shortsword, Leather Armor +1
AC	19
Saving Throws	Fort +12, Ref +8, Will +11
HP	33
Speed	25 feet
Melee	Fist: +11 / +7 / +3 (Agile, Nonlethal, Unarmed) / Damage: 1d4+4 Bludgeoning, Nonlethal Shortsword +11 / +7 / +3 (Agile, Finesse, Versatile S) / Damage 1d6+4 Piercing Dagger: +11 / +7 / +3 (Agile, Finesse, Versatile S) / Damage: 1d4+4 Piercing
Ranged	Dagger: +8 / +4 / +0 (Agile, Finesse, Thrown 10') / Damage: 1d4+4 Piercing

Waryn Colifer (Poacher Lieutenant, Elite) - NPC 3

UNIQUECNMEDIUMHUMANOIDHUMAN

Common poachers tend to be downtrodden members of society just looking to make some coin any way they can - and for whatever reason they've been unable to find a "respectable" job. Waryn was approached by Amaric Duncanson himself very early in the poaching operation. Waryn owns and operates the Livery Stables that are across the street from Amaric's general store, and Amaric needed a way to ensure that his merchant contacts could be properly loaded and unloaded without raising undue interest from townsfolk. Promised a healthy share of the profits, Waryn agreed to make his Livery Stable one endpoint of a tunnel connected to Amaric's basement. Merchant's whose wagons were being housed in the Livery could be loaded and unloaded without prying eyes using this tunnel. Waryn's family is unaware of his involvement - and would be horrified if and when they do find out.
Perception	+10
Languages	Common
Skills	Athletics+11, Crafting+7, Deception+7, Intimidation+7, Stealth+10, Survival+11
STR +4 , DEX +1 , CON +3 , INT +0 , WIS +2 , CHA +0
Items	Dagger, Shortsword, Leather Armor +1
AC	19
Saving Throws	Fort +12, Ref +8, Will +11
HP	33
Speed	25 feet
Melee	Fist: 11 / +7 / +3 (Agile, Nonlethal, Unarmed) / Damage: 1d4+4 Bludgeoning, Nonlethal Shortword: +11 / +7 / +3 (Agile, Finesse, Versatile S) / Damage 1d6+4 Piercing Dagger: +11 / +7 / +3 (Agile, Finesse, Versatile S) / Damage: 1d4+4 Piercing
Ranged	Dagger: +8 / +4 / +0 (Agile, Finesse, Thrown 10') / Damage: 1d4+4 Piercing

The Escape Attempt

Loot Recovered by Party of 4

Inspecting your fallen/restrained foes and the wagon, you find:

• In addition to the two draft horses pulling the wagon, and the three ridden by the sellswords, there's one more riding horse with saddle and a very fine coil of rope draped over the saddlehorn. This must be the horse Amaric rode here on.
• In the storage under the wagon seat, you find a few interesting items: a black polished stone figurine of some sort of cat, a ring of keys that all seem to be identical (there are 17 keys on the ring), and a white swan wingfeather which, upon closer inspection, has some symbols inked onto the quill with the most exquisitely fine pen strokes you've ever seen. And there is a smooth, round stick that appears to have some sort of plug at each end, as if it was hollow.
• There's also a small chest; in it you find 15gp, 18sp, and 32cp. and a small, rolled-up parchment with odd writing and symbols on it.
• Among them, the sellswords were carrying 3gp, 8sp, 8cp

The treasure consists of the following:

• The black stone figurine is a Onyx Panther. Identify Magic (any) DC15 will identify it.
• Each key is an activated Feather Token (Chest). Identify Magic (any) DC18 will that they are magical, and are concealing something. Turning the key as if in a lock will cause the key to vanish and a chest to appear in its place. In each chest, there is a cage containing a live pixie or sprite.
• The stick is a Smokestick (lesser). An Alchemist will immediately identify it; otherwise, Identify Alchemy DC 14 will do it. It is not magical, so magical identification means will not work on it.
• The parchment is a magical formula for making a Feather Token (Chest). Decipher Writing (Arcana) DC18 will identify it.
• The rope on Amaric's saddle is a Rope of Climbing . Identify Magic (any) DC18 will reveal that this rope can be used to climb things more easily.
• The rolled-up parchment is a Web Spell Scroll. Identify Magic (Nature) DC16 will reveal that it is a Web Spell. A Druid will automatically identify it, as will any Primal spellcaster with Web on their spell list.

Reminder on Identifying Magic

A reminder on Detect Magic and Identify

Detect Magic is a Cantrip that simply tells the caster whether or not there is magic present with 30' of them. It does not indicate direction, nor does it pinpoint specific sources of magical emanation.

Read Aura is a Cantrip that tells the caster whether a particular item being handled is magical or not, and if it is, what school of magic is involved (Enchantment, Abjuration, etc.). High level illusions can block this effect.

Identify Magic is a skill check that theoretically anybody Trained in the appropriate magical tradition can use to determine what a magical item is. It is necessary to have definitively determined that an item is magical before this skill can be applied. This determination can be made either via Read Aura, or prior certain knowledge. For example, a rune carved on a blade that looks much like a rune on a player's own blade can be "known to be magical" for this purpose.